SAN ANTONIO, TX-- After beginning his new show last year, it only took 14 days for Stephen Anderson's vision of his new show to crash with the reality of the world.
He was on a car ride back to San Antonio with his producer Samantha Garcia and an hour after they got back both their cell phones were buzzing with text messages with the news of the uprising in Egypt. Garcia turned to Anderson and said, "You've always wanted to go live on air. This is the night it happens."
So began the eventful first year that saw Anderson change the entire format of his show and do much more in-depth interviews. As well as interview CBS Big Brother's Shelly Moore, quit "Minute By Minute Sports" and see his reputation shoved into a Casey Anthony audio scandal in his home town of Austin.
Even after all that, he survived. Anderson may have not lived up to the hype of a dangerous show, but he has not failed either. "Round The Bases" is up 7 percent over this time last year, and it is attracting more younger listeners. He marks his first year anniversary next week with an appearance by Sara La Touf. This week he interviews Spurs Sports & Entertainment's Andrew Monaco.
"It isn't successful as I'd like it to be," Anderson told me in a interview this morning. "I'd like things to be better, to get the ratings even higher, and we believe that this is the year to put the petal to the metal. But am I happy with how we did in our first year? Yes, I am it would be tough for the critics to say we have done poor when the ratings are actually up."
Anderson's biggest threat involved his past. Before even going on air entered his mind, he was very vocal about anything and everything. He faced accusations that he made death threats involving Florida mom Casey Anthony during her trial. Anderson insisted he never has made any type of comments towards Anthony and appeared via Skype at a meeting in December.
Anderson called the meeting "annoying" and a waste of his time. "It made me laugh when people said that BTR had no idea about my past, but of course they did. They asked me, 'is this going to cause a problem?' and I responded no of course not."
"BTR believes that Anderson has had a strong first year, and despite his scandal his listeners rate has gone up," producer Samantha Garcia said.
The news this year was a first for Anderson. Including the The Arab Spring, the devastating tsunami in Japan, deadly tornadoes and Osama bin Laden's killing. The taped shows vs. live show numbers have been the opposite than what Anderson expected. It reached the point where one guest texted Anderson and asked him 'When are you going to air my interview?'
Garcia, Anderson's producer and cousin said she hopes the show will have fewer swings and misses differing each week and shorter interviews will be the main point this year. It will give Anderson the chance to show his personality.
A very busy news day was the main point behind Anderson's decision to leave "Minute By Minute Sports." (Thomas Vega is his replacement) On that day, he spent an afternoon at the AT&T Center covering the San Antonio Rampage hockey game and spent some quiet time to himself afterwards. Then went back down to cover more of the game.
"As fun as it was though, I knew this year was going to be busy," he said. Do I really want to be covering a Spurs game on Super Tuesday during an important election year? The answer is no I don't."
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